Thanksgiving

This Thanksgiving is a holiday of firsts. It was our first Thanksgiving away from extended family. It is the first Thanksgiving that I cooked the entire meal all by myself. It is our first Thanksgiving as a family of four, and it will also be our last!

This morning I think we all woke up a little bummed that we didn’t spend the holidays with our family in New England. Last night, we even considered a surprise early morning drive up. I’m glad we stuck with our decision to celebrate Thanksgiving here at home. It is shaping up to be a truly wonderful day.

We decided to start some new traditions this year. We woke up this morning, had breakfast, and loaded the family in the car. We headed into the city for the parade. We only caught the tail end of it, but it was worth it. Ellie was so excited to see the floats, marching bands and best of all, Santa! When it was over, I cried. It was just a magical moment and knowing I’m providing memories like that for my kids warms my heart. (Chris on the other hand thought I was crazy and I just blamed it on pregnancy hormones.)

I am thankful for my children, my wonderful husband, the fabulous family and friends we have. I am thankful my husband has a job he enjoys and he works in a supportive environment that appreciates family and friends. I am thankful that his employment affords for me to stay home with our children, no matter how much we have to sacrifice to make that happen. I am thankful for every facet of my life, because when I was a child I thought it could only be a dream.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Random Thursday Update

I know this blog is a million shades of boring. I'm not a writer, never was, never will be. I just like that I can write down what we've been up to so family back in NE feels at least a little more connected to the kids. I know they are still cursing us for moving them away.

Charlie had a dermatology appointment today because his diaper rash came back. The dermatologist said that everything looks good and he doubts Charlie ever had a staph infection. I'm annoyed by this mostly because I had to throw away a bunch of diapers that run about $18-$22 each just to be on the safe side. I was majorly disappointed when the rash came back after tossing a small fortune. By what I described, because of course it was 99% cleared up by the time we got in to see him, he said it was most likely yeast and nothing to be concerned about. He did give us an Rx diaper cream to use if it does come back again. He was really nice.

Ellie has been a trip. She's been talking a lot about babies and being pregnant lately. We started putting up the Christmas decorations and she has a small nativity scene on her night stand. She keeps telling me that her baby isn't named Jesus.... imagine if we named the kid Jesus? Goodness!! On the flip side of all the cuteness is a little girl I want to send away on vacation for a while. She just loves to say “No” and has trouble listening when there is something else she’d rather be doing. Last night she went to bed without stories. She screamed her head off for five minutes before she fell asleep. She woke up at 5 a.m. asking for stories. I gave her Gramma’s magic sleepy blanket (a random blanket my MIL gave her) and she went right back to bed. It worked like a charm and I only wish Chris had thought of this idea earlier!

Still no decisions in the baby name department. I do know that after the power cleaning last weekend I have absolutely zero energy, which makes me a little sad because I feel like I'm ignoring Ellie just a wee bit! It seriously takes me all damn day just to get the kitchen cleaned. It’s in a constant state of mess, which I why I have a hard time enjoying cleaning in the first place. Why doesn’t anything ever just STAY clean?

My doctor called me. My lab work came back negative so I’m fine. The thyroid ultrasound did show a nodule, but it’s only 3 mm and they don’t worry until it’s over 1cm. I go back in a year to get it checked again. They’ll just continue to keep an eye on it. Chris had his yearly check up too. He has to go for a sleep study and still has to get lab work done. Why does everything go downhill after you turn 30… actually Chris isn’t even 30 yet!! I have no idea what I’m going to do for his b-day. Any ideas? I doubt he ever looks at this so you can leave a comment if you have a good one.

We are going on a DATE Saturday night!! This will be our first date out of the house since Valentine’s day when my in laws where here and stayed with the kids so we could get a drink and catch a movie. We are hitting up the movies again to go see “New Moon.” I am beyond excited.

If you want to feel like you're the best parent on earth... attend a flu clinic.

Bubba, Magoo and I got our H1N1 shots today. The clinic was from 4-8pm. We got there at 3:45 and by 7 we were vaccinated. Nothing like standing in line for three hours with a bunch of strangers to make you feel REALLY good about your parenting skills. Now, I’m not usually one to judge, but it was just plain crazy. There was one Mom who wasn’t watching her son as he took their friend’s stroller and ran-a-muck with it all through the line and the PARKING LOT, where there were many MANY moving vehicles. Then there was the lovely woman behind us who hit her kid a few times and repeatedly told him she was going to “beat his a$$,” “make his a$$ warm,” oh and let’s not forget the ever charming “I am going to beat your f***ing a$$.” She was quite charming. I gather she’s from Camden. At one point her son accused Ellie of kicking him… Ellie… my scaredy cat, gentle, couldn’t hurt a fly unless it’s her brother, Ellie. All in all, they were pretty ridiculous. My last, but certainly not least, favorite parent was the guy who shook his daughter over in the corner and SCREAMED at her “stop crying, you’re scaring all the other kids.” Really? Because I’m pretty sure he was scarier to them than her crying. Chris and I certainly left there feeling like we deserved awards for Mom and Dad of the year.

I was supposed to go out with my preschool Mom’s tonight. By the time we left we were all tired, cold and cranky from standing outside for three hours. The kids were starving so we took them to Friendly’s. I could have met up with the girls when I got home. After all, they did move it back to 7pm and changed the venue to a restaurant in town…but all I could think about at that point was going to bed. After all, I would rather spend a nice night out with my hubby and kids more than anyone else.

On the kid’s front, they are both doing well. Ellie is gaining weight and her cardiologist was really happy with her progress. Her sats hung out at 98% while we were there last week. Her echo showed that her heart function is great and the fenestration closure is holding up nicely. We go back in 6 months. He even said he thought it was about time we got her g-tube out, since we haven’t used it since February and it’s more of a nuisance anyway. We have a GI appointment on the 30th, so hopefully we can talk about it then and get a plan in place.

Charlie is just a perfect almost 11 month old. I can’t believe he’s going to be a year old in a month. It’s crazy. I feel like he was just born yesterday! His latest bag of tricks include: blowing kisses, waving, giving high fives, doing “so big” (which is his favorite), and saying “Yay.” He really understands so much too. I can ask him to come over to me and he does. I ask him where his binky is and he finds it. It’s just unbelievable the amount of “stuff” that gets processed through that brain of his! He won’t be walking by his first b-day. He will walk with his push toy and cruise around on the furniture, but shows no more interest than that.

#3 is doing well. I’m going in every two weeks now. He’s insanely active just like his big brother was. He is still nameless. We currently are considering: Cooper Scott Luis (Coop), Brycen Christopher (Bryce), Brody Scott Luis, Nathaniel Scott Luis (Nate or Than) and Maxwell Scott Luis (Max). Any thoughts or ideas? The middle name will most likely be Scott Luis, but we really liked the way Brycen sounded with Christopher… so it could go either way. I just have a feeling this kid is going to come home from the hospital without a name.

I had a serious case of nesting this weekend. #3’s clothes are washed and put away. I scrubbed the house down top to bottom and went through all the rooms. We put all the toys downstairs and rearranged Ellie’s room. We also rearranged the boy’s room. It looked a little weird the way we had both cribs set up before, but now it looks perfect. Once we buy some crib bedding and get that up I’ll take pictures and post some. This place has never been so clean!